It Was All Possible

It Was All Possible (working title) is a storytelling comedy, born out of life at the border. The interlocutors’ stories humorously touch upon different, at times burning, even fateful topics, problems and phenomena that have left a significant mark on individuals’ and the community’s social and economic circumstances. They offer interesting comparisons and explain generational differences, but above all, connect the audience through laughter and encourage it to think.

It Was All Possible is the concluding production of the Season of Story Picking project, developed by the Scaramouche Institute (led by Tereza Gregorič) as a part of the official programme GO! 2025. The creative team collected over seventy testimonies of those who have lived along the Slovenian–Italian border. Through their stories, an image of living on the border of two worlds emerges – a split between two cities in two countries of opposing political ideologies. The stories of ordinary people, so often overlooked by the official history (some recorded for the first time as a part of this project), provide profound insights into the material and immaterial cultural heritage of the Primorska region, contribute to the mosaic of the Slovenian history and identity and offer a critical reflection on the relationships between the past and the present. The artistic methods the creators employ to enhance the documentary material emphasise the comedic dimensions of joy and humour, already apparent in the testimonies as a faithful companion to the “esprit” of the region. They thus explore the continuity and tradition of Mediterranean comedy and its archetypal characters, who in It Was All Possible encounter contemporary approaches of the narrative theatre.

The Season of Harvesting Stories brought with it an awareness about the immense life energy and survival ingenuity that throughout history showed the Primorska region. In it, as a theatrical key comedy appears, because with the comical opening of certain situations, a space for critical reflection and subversion also opens.

_{Tereza Gregorič}